First Look! Wayne Brady Comes Full-Circle in Broadway-Bound Revival of The Wiz: ‘This Is the Dream’ (Exclusive)

Wayne Brady is ready to see you now!

The five-time Emmy winner has stepped into the lead role in the musical’s Broadway revival Wizard, and PEOPLE has an exclusive first look at him in action.

Theatergoers can see Brady as the wizard in the acclaimed musical before the Broadway National Tour, now playing through February 11 at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco. It will next come to the Hollywood Pantages Theater in Los Angeles from February 13 to March 3 before beginning previews at the Marquis Theater in New York on March 29. The opening is officially scheduled for April 17.

They work Wizard is a full-circle moment for Brady, he told PEOPLE on Thursday in a call a day after making his production debut.

“This performance is a benchmark, and not just for me, but for a lot of black performers,” says Brady. “It was the first time we had such incredible singing and dancing on screen from people who look like us.”

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‘Wizard’.

Jeremy Daniel

Based on the beloved children’s book by L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Wizard premiered on Broadway in 1975 and became an instant sensation, with audiences praising him for transforming one of the world’s most enduring American fantasies into an all-black musical extravaganza. Charlie Smalls’ music fused ’70s funk with soul, gospel and rock and inspired well-known hits such as “Ease on Down the Road” and “Home”. It took home seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

In 1978, a film adaptation starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Mabel King, Richard Pryor and Lena Horne (among others) hit theaters and became a cult classic among audiences.

So Wizard came into Brady’s life. “I grew up loving musicals,” he recalls. “I watched them all, from story from the west side to Guys and dolls, Singing in the rain, Seven brides for seven brothers — you know, these classic shows that we were told, ‘These are great.’ And then, I have to see Wizard. And when I saw that, a light bulb turned on in me and like many other artists, I said, ‘Oh. That’s what I want to do.’ ”

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When producers began planning a Broadway revival – the first in 40 years – Brady received an invitation from director Schele Williams to be part of the workshop. Alan Mingo Jr. has been playing the role since the tour began last fall, in Baltimore.

“What’s been amazing about the process is that Alan Mingo Jr. has been absolutely great with this on the road. But now I have a challenge where you join something and say, ‘Okay, how am I going to make this mine?’ ‘ ” says Brady. “And I’m still figuring it out, you know? I keep thinking about the conversation I had with Schela. She said, ‘Wayne, when I thought of Wiz, I thought of you. You were a phone call.’ For me, that means I just have to bring my sense of child’s play and my sense of fun.”

“He’s a Wizard, so I want to make him likeable. But I also want to make him a little dangerous, because the first song he sings is about all these things he can do to you,” added Brady. “And we know he’s incompetent, so I want him to look like, ‘One minute he’s happy, one minute he’s trying to lure you in, the next minute he’s with you and he’s your brother and the next minute, he’s too good for the room.’ If I can do all that and have fun at the end of the day, then I’ll do it.”

Besides Brady, Wizard starring Nichelle Lewis as Dorothy, Deborah Cox as Glinda, Melody A. Betts as Aunt Em and Evillene, Kyle Ramar Freeman as the Lion, Phillip Johnson Richardson as the Tin Man and Avery Wilson as the Scarecrow.

The ensemble includes Mingo Jr. plus Maya Bowles, Shayla Alayre Caldwell, Jay Copeland, Allyson Kaye Daniel, Judith Franklin, Michael Samarie George, Collin Heyward, Amber Jackson, Olivia Jackson, Christina Jones, Polanco Jones, Kolby Kindle, Mariah Lyttle, Kareem Marsh, Anthony Murphy, Cristina Rae, Matthew Sims Jr., Avilon Trust Tate, Keenan D. Washington, and Timothy Wilson.

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This will be Brady’s fourth time on Broadway. He debuted as Billy Flynn in the long-running revival of the film Chicago back in 2004 and went on to play the acclaimed role of Lola in Crazy boots. It’s recent Whose line is that anyway? breakout showed off his improv skills as part of the cast Freestyle Love Supreme.

But no matter how many times he does it, Broadway “never gets old,” he says.

“This is a dream,” Brady tells PEOPLE. “Believe me when I tell you, I’m excited every time I get an opportunity like this. I don’t care how successful I am, 16-year-old Wayne still gets giddy to see his name on the locker room door, to see his picture in front of the theater, to see his name in the canopy, knowing this is Broadway. It always feels fresh.”

AND Wizard, as the musical that inspired his desire to perform, is the icing on the cake. “I’m not just doing a series because the actor Wayne wants to be in the series. I’m part of something historic,” he notes. “I got to be a part of this wonderful machine that brings this show back to Broadway after 40 years, and Schele Williams makes history as the first black woman to direct two musicals on Broadway at the same time. [The Wiz and The Notebook]. With Amber Ruffin as our writer [adding additional material to William F. Brown’s book] and JaQuel Knight as our choreographer. It’s amazing.”

Wayne Brady. Arturo Holmes/WireImage

Mostly, Brady hopes he can inspire the next generation of performers, in the same way Wizard inspired him.

“That’s how I approach my work now,” Brady says. “I realize there’s some kid — some little boy, some little girl, somebody who’s sitting there saying, ‘How do I get from where I am to that stage, because that’s all I want?’ And I want them to know: ‘If he can do it, so can I,’ because that’s what I missed as a child.”

“That’s what Wizard meant to me,” he adds. “I haven’t seen it anywhere else. I should have seen things like that Wizard. I was supposed to see Diana Ross and Michael Jackson sing and dance. And later I was to see Ben Vereen telling me from the screen, ‘This is what you can do.’ So if I can be that for anybody, then hey, then I’ve done my job on the planet.”

Tickets for Wizard they are on sale now.

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Source: HIS Education